APPOINTED TIMES SERIES - ROSH HASHANAH. h[wrt ~wy Y O M T E R U A H THE DAY OF SOUNDING THE SHOFAR. Rabbi Jim Appel

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1 h[wrt ~wy Y O M T E R U A H APPOINTED TIMES SERIES - ROSH HASHANAH THE DAY OF SOUNDING THE SHOFAR Rabbi Jim Appel

2 YOM TERUAH, THE DAY OF SOUNDING THE SHOFAR ROSH HASHANAH is the traditional name for this Jewish, Biblical holiday, also called the FEAST OF TRUMPETS. Scripture commands us to celebrate this day with shouts of joy and the sounding of the Shofar. But why? What are we supposed to be so happy about and why the Shofar? In this book Rabbi Jim Appel answers these questions with new revelation from Scripture. He reveals the profound significance of the Shofar and the deep meaning of this appointed day. Find out what has been hidden from followers of Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah for more than 1700 years. Rejoice that it is being restored to us today. Don t miss out anymore on this special connection to the Lord. About the author Rabbi Jim s Jewish parents were atheists who taught him that organized religion deceived and oppressed people. His search for spiritual reality began in drugs and yoga, but ended in 1977 in his bedroom with a dramatic encounter with the Messiah Yeshua. Before becoming the Messianic Rabbi of Congregation Shema Yisrael in 1996, Rabbi Jim worked for Xerox Corporation for 24 years as an optical engineer and manager. He has a master s degree in physics and holds more than 45 patents in copier imaging systems and laser printing. Rabbi Jim shepherds his flock with gentle, inviting, easy-to-understand, yet profound teachings always with personal, spiritual and practical application. He and his wife, Diane, live in Rochester, NY. They have two grown children. ROSH HASHANAH THE DAY OF SOUNDING THE SHOFAR R a b b i J i m A p p e l $14.95 O tyz rhc olivepresspublisher.org M e s s i a n i c & C h r i s t i a n P u b l i s h e r

3 hwrt ~wy YOM TERUAH, The Day of Sounding the Shofar Appointed Times Series - Rosh Hashanah Copyright 2011 by Rabbi James Appel All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright holder, except as provided by USA copyright law. Printed in the USA ISBN Jewish Holidays 2. Messianic Judaism 3. Spiritual Growth Cover photo and photos on pages 91 and 131 copyright 2011 by Allan Miller, Rochester, NY, amille2@rochester.rr.com All pencil drawings of Shofars copyright 2011 by Artist, Karen Van Lieu, kavanlieu@gmail.com Photo on page 227 copyright 2011 by David Bowling, m16m.com/photogallery.html Photos on pages 113 and 215 copyright 2011 by David Adams, Jerusalem, Israel Photos on pages 23, 41, 57, and 121 copyright 2011 by Elisabeth Adams, Jerusalem, Israel Cover design copyright 2011 Cheryl Zehr, Olive Press Published by Olive Press Messianic and Christian Publisher P.O. Box 163 olivepressbooks@gmail.com Copenhagen, NY O tyz rhc Our prayer at Olive Press is that we may help make the Word of Adonai fully known, that it spread rapidly and be glorified everywhere. We hope our books help open people s eyes so they will turn from darkness to Light and from the power of the adversary to God and to trust in [wxy Yeshua (Jesus). (From II Thess. 3:1; Col. 1:25; Acts 26:18,15 NRSV New Revised Standard Version and CJB) May this book in particular reveal more deep meaning in the Jewish roots of our faith. Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound (the Teruah)! They walk, O LORD, in the light of Your countenance. Psalms 89:15 (NKJV) I dedicate this book to [wxy Yeshua who saved me. To honor Him, all pronouns referring to the Lord are capitalized, satan s names are not. Scriptures quotes are left as they are. All Scripture, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Complete Jewish Bible. Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Scriptures marked: NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, California. All rights reserved. NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved. NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

4 Table of Contents Acknowledgements Special thanks to the Ruakh HaKodesh (the Holy Spirit) who will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative but will say only what He hears (John 16:13). Also thanks to all the people in Congregation Shema Yisrael, and at other venues, who have encouraged me with their feedback and comments on my teachings. And special thanks to my publisher, Cheryl Zehr, who valued these teachings enough to convince me that they should be made more widely available in a book, who spent many hours transcribing the messages, and who had great patience with my slow responses to her s. 1 What Are We To Remember? 9 Why We Celebrate The Biblical Feasts 18 2 The Rapture 23 3 Intercession 33 4 The Promised Land 41 5 Shout For Joy For Past Events 57 6 The Shofar 71 7 The Source Of Our Hope 91 8 What Is T shuvah? 99 9 Jerusalem, A Praise In The Earth Upside Down Kingdom, Part I Upside Down Kingdom, Part II The Joy Of The Lord Is Our Strength A Time To Heal, Part I A Time To Heal, Part II A Time To Heal, Part III A Kingdom Of Cohanim 193 Breaking Up The Fallow Ground Handout The One Who Is Forgiven Much, Loves Much Shout For Joy For Future Events The Message Of Akida (The Binding Of Isaac) 239 APPENDIX I Rosh Khodesh The Biblical New Moon Celebration 251 APPENDIX II The Two Silver Trumpets 259 APPENDIX III Biblical Uses of the Shofar 261 APPENDIX IV Dates of the Original Teachings 265 GLOSSARY 267 Pronunciation Key 266

5 CHAPTER 1 WHAT ARE WE TO REMEMBER? I n this book, we are going to study a Biblical holiday. But before we get to that specific holiday, let s discuss what Biblical holidays are called in general. In Leviticus 23, where all the holidays are mentioned, they are called, in Hebrew, Moadim. There are many different translations for the word Moadim. The common ones you might have in your Bibles are designated feasts or feasts of the Lord. But it really doesn t make any sense to call them feasts because one of them is Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Is it a feast? No, it s a fast! So, if one of the holidays is a fast, how can you call all of them feasts? The New American Standard translation calls these days Appointed Times. I like that term because these are times that God has appointed. They are specific times that He has decided we are to meet with Him. He has made the appointment. 9

6 10 Chapter 1 What Are We To Remember? 11 When we make an appointment with somebody, we set the agenda. So these are days when God has set the agenda. The Moad (singular for one Appointed Time )* we ll study in this book is known as Rosh Hashanah to Jewish people and as the Feast of Trumpets to church people. So, what is God s agenda for this Appointed Time? Well, to find out let s look at what the Scripture says about it. Leviticus 23:24-25 Tell the people of Isra el, In the seventh month, the first of the month is to be for you a day of complete rest for remembering, a holy convocation announced with blasts on the shofar (ram s horn). 25 Do not do any kind of ordinary work, and bring an offering made by fire to ADONAI (the Lord). Notice there are five commands given here: 1. Have a day of rest (a Shabbat). 2. Hold a holy convocation or assembly. 3. Blow the Shofar (ram s horn). 4. Make offerings. 5. And it also tells exactly on which day it is to be celebrated. That seems clear enough. But we d like to know a little more, wouldn t we? So, let s look at what some other Scriptures say about it. But, you know what? We can t do that. You know why? Those are the only verses in the whole Bible that give the instructions for Rosh Hashanah! So, in looking at these five Scriptural commands for Rosh Hashanah, we find ourselves in a quandary over how to celebrate it. Why? Well, first because we can t make offerings anymore. God commanded in Leviticus 17:8-9 that sacrifices can only be made at the Temple, so ever since the Temple was destroyed in 70 CE, Jewish people have not been able to make sacrifices to the Lord. We have no problem obeying the other four commands. We like making this day a Shabbat (Sabbath) because a day of rest is always nice. We have no problem with assembling together because we like fellowship. We definitely have no trouble with blowing the Shofar. We love doing that. And the date? That command has always been followed. Rosh Hashanah is always held on the first day of Tishri, the seventh month of the Jewish calendar. So we do all those things, but then we kind of scratch our heads and wonder why? What is the meaning of it all? What exactly are we supposed to do when we meet and blow the Shofar? And is there anything else we should be doing? * The glossary (p. 267) contains most of the Hebrew used in this book. So, in preparing for Rosh Hashanah I have found myself praying. Lord what did You intend for this day? Is it what it has become in Traditional Judaism? Is that what You had in mind? Then the Ruakh HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) gave me a first insight from the meaning of the Hebrew words that are translated announced with blasts on the Shofar. The Hebrew words are zih-kh ron teruah which actually mean, a memorial of blowing the Shofar and shouting for joy. Yes, those two little words really do mean all that! And, you know what? To be Biblical, we could call this holiday Yom Zih-kh ron Teruah or Yom Teruah. ( Yom is Hebrew for day. ) Thus the title of this book! Zih-kh ron means a memorial to bring to memory for the purpose of keeping it fresh in our minds. [See Strong s H2146.] We have lots of other memorials in our culture. A bridge can be a memorial. Take the Veteran s Memorial Bridge where I live in Rochester, NY, for example. A building can be a memorial. The War Memorial building here in Rochester is a building named to remind us of World War II. It is important to us to keep reminding ourselves of that war. That s why there was so much objection several years ago to renaming it The Blue Cross Arena. The city officials compromised by naming it The Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial. A day can be a memorial. We have Memorial Day when we remember those who lost their lives defending our nation. Yom HaShoah, the Holocaust Remembrance Day, is an important memorial day to us as Jewish people. We want to remember those who perished and to continue to commit ourselves to our motto, Never again. Those are all solemn or sorrowful memorials, but memorials can also be joyous, for example, the Fourth of July. Now, can you think of another Biblical Appointed Time, besides Rosh Hashanah, that is a memorial? Actually, all the Biblical Appointed Times except for Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) are memorials of something. Pesakh (Passover), Firstfruits, Shavuot (Feast of Weeks or Pentecost), and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) are all memorials of important events in Israel s history and of Messianic events: The Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the coming of the Ruakh HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), and the future Millennial reign. Can you think of any other events that have been memorialized in Judaism? Khanukah (also spelled Hanukkah), Purim (celebrating Queen Esther), and Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) are a few of them. Can you think of some events memorialized in Christianity? Of course! There s Easter, Christmas, and Pentecost.

7 12 Chapter 1 What Are We To Remember? 13 Now, in order to have a memorial, there has to be something to remember, right? But Scripture doesn t say what we are to remember on Rosh Hashanah. That s why we re back to scratching our heads. What are we to be remembering? Well, to find out, let s look at the other word in that Hebrew phrase in Leviticus 23:24 zih-kh ron teruah. We just looked at zih-kh ron. Now lets look at teruah blowing the Shofar and shouting for joy. Yes, that whole phrase is all wrapped up in that one little Hebrew word, teruah. (See Strong s H8643.) So, what does this word tell us about the thing we re supposed to remember? Well, since it says shouting for joy, it must be for something good. So, this day is a memorial of shouting for joy over something good. Now, let s look further at the word memorial. A memorial serves two purposes. First, it causes us to remember an event that we should be thankful for, or sad about. Second, it reminds us to be committed to the cause of what we re remembering! For example, on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day), we re-commit ourselves to never letting a Holocaust happen again. On July 4 th we re-dedicate ourselves to our country. So, there are two questions we need to answer concerning this day of Rosh Hashanah. What event are we to remember? And to what cause are we to renew our commitment? Well, traditional Judaism has an answer to each of these questions. We re going to look at those answers. Then we ll find answers in the prophetic Scriptures. Lastly, we ll look at the Scriptural instructions for the use of the Shofar. In Traditional Judaism, Rosh Hashanah is the day we celebrate the New Year. The words Rosh Hashanah mean Head (or start) of the Year. Now, before I go any further, I need to untangle for you the confusion surrounding this tradition. Rosh Hashanah is on the first day of Tishri which is the seventh month, as I told you. Why would we celebrate New Years Day on the first day of the seventh month? That would be like celebrating the Fourth of July on January 4th or New Years Day on July 1st. Yet the Jewish community really does celebrate Rosh Hashanah as New Year s Day. Our Jewish calendar year actually changes number on this date. This is especially strange since God specifically commands in Exodus 12:2 that the first month of the year must be Nisan, the month of Pesakh. So why didn t our forefathers obey that command? Well, there is an archaeological justification to this. We learn from archeologists and scholars that this day was the head of the civil year which they say pre-dated the Biblical year commanded by God. So, it might seem that we Jewish people were once again just too stubborn to obey God. I was thinking that was maybe the case, but then I found two Scriptural justifications. 1. Exodus 34:22 Observe the festival of Shavu ot (Feast of Weeks, known as Pentecost) with the first-gathered produce of the wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering at the turn of the year. The Feast of Ingathering or Sukkot, also called the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles, is two weeks after Rosh Hashanah and in this verse, Scripture calls that time the turn of the year. At this season, in the seventh month, the year has revolved, and is beginning anew. 2. Creation is described in Job 38:7. Where were you when I founded the earth when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Because this last phrase shouted for joy is identical to the Scriptural command for Rosh Hashanah, the ancient rabbis taught that creation was finished on this day. The Jewish calendar years date from creation which we just noted apparently happened at Rosh Hashanah. Although the first month changed when God told Moses to change it, the counting of years didn t change. So, because of those two Scriptures, we will be lenient with our Jewish ancestors and agree there is a reason to celebrate the New Year at this time. Now, in America we have New Year s Day on January 1. Then we have a new year for school and businesses have their fiscal new years which start at varying times. Well, we Jews have several new years, too. We have the Biblical New Year in the spring on Nisan 1 as I just mentioned. (Passover is on Nisan 14.) In the month of Elul in August or September (depending on how long it s been since the leap year lunar month has been added), we have the New Year for the tithing of animals. Tu B Shevat in mid January to February is the New Year for trees for determining tithes of fruit. And as we just learned, Rosh Hashanah has always been our New Year for counting our years. Culturally and traditionally New Year Days are joyous occasions all around the world. It is the same for the Jewish people. For us, Rosh Hashanah is a time for remembering the good things from the past year. Therefore, we are already obeying God s commandment to have a memorial of shouting for joy on this day. We rejoice over what the Lord has done in the past year and over all the blessings we have received. This is similar to what many believers do on December 31 st New Year s Eve on the Gregorian calendar. Jewish people also celebrate Rosh Hashanah as a day to remember and be thankful for the creation of the world because of that verse in Job.

8 CHAPTER 3 Intercession R osh Hashanah is an ancient holiday, given to us by God thousands of years ago. So, we might wonder if it has significance anymore. We might ask ourselves, What should Rosh Hashanah mean to us today? Well, we ve learned that someday our Lord will come to gather all His chosen ones with the sound of the Shofar on a Rosh Hashanah day. And we will all be raptured up to meet Him in the air! We can certainly hope that this glorious Rapture will be this Rosh Hashanah, can t we?! Amen! So, go ahead and shout. It is something to rejoice about. We can also enjoy the stirring sound of the Shofar and obey its call to worship. But, should we, as forgiven believers in Messiah, make this a time of repentance as Traditional Jews do? Well, I believe the B rit Hadashah teaches us to live lives of continual, personal repentance as believers in the Messiah. Yeshua told us to participate in the S udat Adonai (the Lord s Supper) periodically and Paul tells us this is a time 33

9 34 Chapter 3 Intercession 35 to examine ourselves. We don t believe that our repentance and good works will influence God to make our fate better for the coming year, as the traditional Jewish people teach, but we certainly do focus on having a repentant attitude. Our purpose is not to better our fate, but to grow closer to Yeshua. But I believe that we as Y hudim Mishikhim (Messianic Jews) and Gerim Mishikhim (Messianic Gentiles) have more to do than personal repentance during the coming Ten Days of Awe. In the book of 1 Peter it says that we have been chosen to be royal cohanim or priests. 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, the King s cohanim (priests), a holy nation, a people for God to possess! Why? In order for you to declare the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. The idea of being a priest is foreign to Jewish people who think only of Catholic priests when we hear the English word priest. But a cohane (singular for cohanim) is a very Jewish concept. In the Laws of Moses the Bible says God established one clan of the tribe of Levi, the descendants of Aaron, as the cohanim. We call them the Levitical Cohanim. So, if Messianic Believers are cohanim we need to understand the Biblical role of the Levitical cohane. First the Levitical Cohanim made sacrifices and repented for their own sins. Then they made atonement for the people s sins. They served as intercessors for the nation of Israel, their community. The priestly role is to repent and intercede for the community or nation we are a part of. Most people are part of at least four communities. Some of you are part of a fifth. 1. We are either Gentile or Jewish. If we are Jewish, we need to repent for the Jewish community turning away from God, for accepting humanist philosophies, becoming legalistic, inventing its own religion, and rejecting Yeshua as Messiah. Psalm 81:10-16 I am ADONAI your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth, and I will fill it. 11 But My people did not listen to My voice; Isra el would have none of me. 12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to live by their own plans. 13 How I wish My people would listen to Me, that Isra el would live by My ways! 14 I would quickly subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes. 15 Those who hate ADONAI would cringe before Him, while [Israel s] time would last forever. 16 They would be fed with the finest wheat, and I would satisfy you with honey from the rocks. We can repent for Israel s turning away and pray for the promise of provision and for the returning to Him to come to pass. Take special notice of verses 10 and 16: Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. They would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you. [This is where we get the tradition of eating honey on Rosh Hashanah.] 2. We are also Americans. As Americans, we need to repent for America turning away from Godliness, for not standing against abortion, for political corruption and taking bribes, for materialism, for sexual sin, for not caring for our poor, etc. 3. We are also Messianic Believers. As such we should repent for the divisions among us. 4. We are members of the Body of Messiah which needs to repent for not standing against evil, for persecution of both Traditional Jewish people and Messianic Jewish people, and for turning Christianity away from its Jewish roots, among other things. 5. Some of you are part of other minority communities. Are there things in those communities you could be repenting for? So, we ve got a lot of work to do during the next ten days, right? Do you feel tired already? There s been a lot of talk in the Body of Messiah about intercession. We have many intercessors in our Messianic congregations and many intercessors outside who are praying for us and for the whole Messianic Movement. As His Royal Cohanim we are called to be intercessors and this is an Appointed Time appointed by God for intercession. The dictionary definition of intercede is to plead or make a request on behalf of another or others, to intervene for the purpose of producing agreement, mediate. Let s see what we can learn about intercession from a few Biblical examples. All of these examples relate to praying for people who have sinned and are in danger of God s judgment. As we look at these and study these together, I hope you will find some help for your prayer assignment for these Ten Days of Awe. I want you to use what we learn here in your private prayer time and as you meet in groups. First, let s look at Moses intercession when the people made the Golden Calf and God was about to destroy them.

10 CHAPTER 6 The Shofar I n traditional synagogues, Jewish leaders sound the Shofar each Shabbat for a month leading up to Rosh Hashanah. When we started our congregation in 1984, most of us had never heard a Shofar blown. Only those who attended traditional Rosh Hashanah services had ever heard one. For the last 1700 years the body of the Messiah has not known about Shofars. Who knows the reason for that? Yes, the church separated itself from its Jewish roots about 1700 years ago. So, the Shofar was hidden from the church for close to 2000 years due to this intentional cutting off of its Jewish roots. But now, since the early 1990 s, suddenly it is becoming very popular in Messianic congregations and churches. The nations the Gentiles are beginning to realize that there is an important spiritual signifi cance to the Shofar even in India. A Shofar player, Jonathan Cahn, from New Jersey was 71

11 72 Chapter 6 The Shofar 73 invited in 2001 to go to India to come up to the mountain where their history says Apostle Thomas was martyred. They asked him to come and be on that mountain as a Jewish believer the first Jewish believer to be there since the time of Thomas, but mostly to blow the Shofar over the nation of India. They grasp something about the importance of the Shofar. And that s what we re going to do. Shofars are usually made of ram s horns, but actually horns from other kosher animals, such as goats, antelopes, gazelles, big horned sheep, etc., can also be used. However, because of the golden calf the Israelites made, a cow s horn cannot be used even though it is a kosher animal. The larger Shofars called Kudu Shofars are made from an African antelope. I wish that when I first saw one of them I had taken my money and invested it in raising Kudu antelope or in a Shofar manufacturing company. They can t keep up with the demand! I would be very rich today. Different things come and go. Is the fascination with the Shofar one of them? Is this just a fad in the church? It could be, but I don t believe it is. I think it is part of the End Time revival that God is bringing! We ll learn about that in this chapter. Many people are now blowing the Shofar or listening to it blown, but they don t really understand what it actually is. They don t understand its power and its importance. The Shofar is not a musical instrument. Have you noticed that? It can be played in such a wonderful worshipful way or in a loud, dramatic blast. I love it when it has a mournful, deep sound during worship. But it s not playing the melody. Right? You aren t musically challenged enough to not catch that, are you? The Shofar simply makes a sound. It doesn t follow the melody or the harmony or anything like that. It is different. So, the Shofar is a special instrument and it shouldn t really be used by a person unless they know what it is all about. The enemy can really confound us if we take things that are special to God and use them in just any ordinary, frivolous way we want. That opens a door to the enemy. It s good to use one, but we need to use it with respect as a holy instrument. We re going to learn about its importance. The Shofar is a tool chosen by God for certain uses or functions. We re going to look into those uses. There are actually six of them. First Function Let s start at Mt. Sinai when God was about to give the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Torah to Moshe (Moses). We find here that the Shofar is associated with the voice of God. Exodus 19:19 When the voice of the Shofar sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice. Now, first of all, in your Bible it probably says, the voice of the trumpet. There are two Hebrew words that are translated trumpet. This one is the word Shofar. We ll talk about the other one later. Shofar is the ram s horn. Shofar comes from the root that means to incise, or to cut (as giving a cutting sound a clear sound). Most of the places where you find the word trumpet in the Books of Moses, except in Numbers 10, you will find that it is the word Shofar. Now, also notice that it said God answered him with a voice and that the voice of the Shofar sounded. There s a play on words here that is very, very important. The Shofar is referred to as having a voice. The Hebrew here is kol hashofar which is literally voice of the Shofar. It ends with God answering him by a voice b kol. Notice the same Hebrew word is used here kol. It s a poetic play on words the voice of the Shofar and the voice of God. The Shofar voice grew louder and louder very strong. Exodus 20:18 Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the Shofar, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Who made the thunderings, lightning flashes, and mountain smoke? God was doing that. Right? Now, included in that was the kol ha- Shofar. Who was blowing on the Shofar? God! Yes, it was not Moses blowing the Shofar, nor the people. God was making this sound of the Shofar. This is something I want you to grasp now. This instrument is created by God. It s an animal horn. Man does not make this instrument. God does. And God sounds this instrument. This is the only instrument recorded in the Scriptures that God makes or uses. He sounded it on Mt. Sinai. And the people heard it. For confirmation of God using it, let s look in Zechariah. Zechariah 9:14 The Lord GOD will blow the Shofar. Now, to get a little deeper into this and to understand it, let s go to Revelations. We re going to look at John who was in the Spirit and saw these visions of heaven. The voice of the Shofar is not only associated with the voice of God. There is more.

12 98 Chapter 7 shocked! Whoa! We are near the end of time! But I didn t figure it out on my own. God gave it to me as a gift. I want to just pray for you right now and ask the Lord to give you that assurance because you re going to need it. As we go through these next years, you re going to need it. You re going to need that Hope Hope that He s coming and Hope that you will go with Him. So, I m going to pray now and if you don t have that assurance I want to give you a chance to make sure that you have it. So, let s just look to the Lord in prayer. Lord, I just lift up to You now all of us. And I know according to Your Word that it is Your strong desire that when that Shofar blows, we will all rise to be with You. Lord, we know that You cry out for each of us, created by You, to be amongst Your elect. And we cry out for those we love to be among Your chosen. So, I just pray for each person that they would be honest with themselves right now and if they don t have that assurance, they would say, Now is the time. Tonight is the night. Today is the day to receive that gift. And Father, we thank you for Rosh Hashanah. We thank you that You appointed a time a Moad to remind us every year that there s going to be that Great Shofar call; that You re going to return and that we re going to rise to be with You forever. We thank You for that reminder. And we pray that it will last with us the whole year. And we pray, Father, that we would know how to walk through this time of tribulation. Lord, we just ask that You would supernaturally place that Hope within us, that it would be strong; that we would live as that faithful servant, as the wise bridesmaids, as a sheep and not a goat, and as the one who invested his talents wisely. I pray, Lord God, that we would live in the knowledge of Your soon return. And Lord, especially during this time of great anguish as a nation, that we would be able to communicate that Hope to those who are without it those whom we meet, those close to us, those who are strangers that we would be able to give them that Hope. We pray for that Hope for all those who are in mourning right now. We pray for that Hope that they will see their loved ones again. In Yeshua s Name. Amen CHAPTER 8 WHAT IS T SHUVAH? T shuvah means repentance. We ve been talking about Yeshua s Second Coming a lot, so I want to move on now to talk about something else that Rosh Hashanah or Yom Teruah should mean. We get some direction from the traditional way of keeping this Moad (Appointed Time). As I explained before, traditionally, this is the New Year. But the greeting is not just, Happy New Year. It s L shanah Tovah Tikkah Tevu. L shanah Tovah means to a good year. Tikkah Tevu means May your name be inscribed. So, the greeting is May your name be inscribed (in God s Book of Life) for a good year. This is drawn from Rabbinic tradition which says that God decides our fate for the next year between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. And those days are called, as I told you before, Yomim Norim ( Days of Awe ). But they are also called the Aseret Yemai T shuvah Ten Days of Repentance. Rosh Hashanah is the beginning of those Ten Days. 99

13 100 Chapter What is T Shuva? Actually Rosh Hashanah is not a day of repentance, it s a day of joy, but it s the start of the Ten Days of Repentance. And they lead up to Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement. The Saturday in the midst of the Days of Repentance, is called Shabbat Shuvah the Sabbath of Repentance. So it all fits together as you follow through God s calendar. We have these Ten Days of repenting before the time comes for the Day of Atonement, which is Yom Kippur that awesome day when everybody needs to be right with God. So we need to get our attitude right to be in a repentant attitude. In Jewish tradition, what are these Ten Days all about? Well, they are days of t shuvah (repentance), for examining our deeds, turning from evil, devoting more time to the Word, to worship, to prayer, devoting ourselves to good works, making amends for things we ve done that we realize are wrong in other words making reconciliation with others whom we might have injured. But we, as believers in the Messiah, sometimes wonder if we should do the soul searching that traditional Jews do since, in Yeshua, we are forgiven. We ask ourselves, Does God want us to make this a time of t shuvah as they do? And the answer, in my mind at least, is a resounding yes! There are several places in the New Covenant where we are instructed to examine ourselves, to search our hearts, and to ask the Spirit of God to search us. Here s one of them. 1 Corinthians 11:31 If we would examine ourselves, we would not come under judgment. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned along with the world. So, Rabbi Sha ul (Paul) is telling us here that God expects us to constantly be searching our souls and to be looking for ways in which we are falling short. Our walk with the Lord is not a static thing. It s not standing still. It s walking and following Him. And in following Him, the Scriptures say we are being changed into His image. So, we need to participate in that by taking time when we can say, Lord, show me what things I need to change. As human beings, I think we all periodically need a reminder to seek God in this way to seek Him to change us to change us from where we are into what He wants to make us. And that s why we need a Moad. That s why we need this Appointed Time to focus on our growing and maturing. So what does the Shofar have to do with all this? Well, the Shofar is to be a wake-up call for our need to change. It s kind of God s alarm clock. Wake up! Because we can fall into a spiritual snooze a spiritual lethargy when we re not moving ahead with God. And you know, even as a nation we can fall asleep. That was what we prayed for after 9-11, and I think it was very appropriate. The World Trade Center terrorist attack was the biggest wake-up call that I think this nation has ever had. But America still hasn t awakened! It still needs to wake up! So, what exactly is t shuvah? It comes from the Hebrew word, shuv which means to turn back, to reconsider, to repent, or to return. I d like to dig into that to give us an understanding of what it means and how it applies to us. I think the essence of t shuvah is wrapped up in the English word, contrite having a contrite heart. Psalm 34:18 (NKJV) The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit. Isaiah 66:2 (NKJV) (This is an incredible verse.) But on this one will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word. There is something very precious to God about having a contrite spirit. Now this word contrite is not very commonly used in our English language today. When I taught on this to some Russian speaking people, they said in Russian it s tremble. So, what is a contrite spirit? Well, I ve prayed about this and I m sure I don t have the full definition, but I believe it means a heart that s open to change, a heart that s open to being taught, a person who does not have an attitude of I ve arrived, I m there, I ve got it made or I know better than everybody else. It s a heart that is humble; a heart that is correctable. That kind of heart is greatly pleasing to God because He knows we all have a long way to go. We re all being conformed to His image. Now, there are really three groups of people that I m going to talk about here that need t shuvah. The first one is those who have already committed themselves to follow the Lord, and have given all they are able to Him. We (of this group) would think that we are not necessarily supposed to go through all that again, but we are going to see in a few minutes how the Shofar blasts are calling even us to t shuvah, to turn to return. The second group I m going to talk about consists of the people who have not given the control of their lives to the Lord yet. They re not sure He is the Messiah. They re not sure what relevance He has in their lives. I believe the Shofar is calling them to t shuvah, to this contrite heart attitude the attitude of being one who is open and saying, God show me. God teach me.

14 CHAPTER 11 UPSIDE DOWN KINGDOM PART II Celebrating the Torah On Rosh Hashanah morning in 2003, we did what we do every holiday and what Jewish synagogues everywhere do every Shabbat morning. We celebrated the Torah. I ll let you peek in on how that went. We re going to do something this morning that is a whole lot of fun. And I hope all of you will participate with us. I have in my hand here my palm pilot! [Remember, this was 2003!] You might say, It looks like a phone. That s because it is. It s both. But it s a palm. And in here all I have to do is click on the correct icon and I can bring up the Bible! Isn t that amazing?! The whole Bible exists in here in electronic form. I don t even know what kind of storage they are using, but it s in here. Palm pilots have been around for about ten years or so already. 131

15 132 Chapter Upside Down Kingdom, Part II Now I also have here my Bible. And we think about this as having been around for thousands of years, don t we? But, you know, this form of the Bible with pages where you can easily go from one place to another, with chapters and headings to guide you it s only been around for about 400 years. But the Bible has been around for 3500 years! So, for 3100 years or so, the Scripture was kept for us in the form of a scroll. Well, we have a Torah scroll here that we re about to bring out and rejoice in because this is a time for remembering. The thing that we want to remember today, as we do this, is that God gave us His Word. These old Torah scrolls, like ours, are parchment scrolls that are rolled up. They are hand-lettered and they contain all five books of Moses in Hebrew. Now, we don t have a 3000-year-old Torah scroll. We have maybe a 150-year-old scroll. Yes, it is an antique. We are going to bring out our scroll and do what we call, Celebrating the Torah. The thing that s fun about this is that when we bring it out we rejoice that God has given us His Word. What an appropriate thing to do on this day of sounding the Shofar with shouts of joy. So, we re going to bring the Torah scroll out and parade it around the room as we sing the traditional Hebrew song, From out of Zion Comes Forth the Law. I would like to ask all of you to get in line behind the Torah Scroll and dance and sing and shout and give thanks to the Lord. Some of you might have seen the dancing over here in the corner during worship, and you might have thought, I d like to do that but I don t know the steps. Well, there are no steps to this dance. Okay? (Chuckles) So feel free to join in. Now when we do this, there s a Jewish custom to take the corner of your Tallit, your prayer shawl, kiss it and touch the scroll as it comes around. Or if you don t have a prayer shawl, you can use your Bible. This is in fulfillment of kissing the Son (Psalms 2:12). The Scroll is the Word of God, and Yeshua is what? The Living Word! So kiss the Son! So, let s rejoice together that God has given us both His written Word and His Living Word! * * * At the end of the service after my message and prayer, we closed with the Post Torah Blessing. Here is how we always do that. First everyone rises and our cantor chants the blessing in Hebrew. Then we all recite it together in English. Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe who has given us a Torah of Truth and has planted eternal Life in our midst. Blessed are You, O Lord our God, giver of the Torah. Amen. The Torah is then carefully covered with its special cloth covering and placed in its special place called the Torah ark. The cantor says, Now as they close the Torah ark, please join with me in the Etz Khaiyim Hee (The Tree of Life). We sing it in Hebrew, then we recite it together in the English. It is a tree of Life to those who take hold of it. And those who support it are praiseworthy. Its ways are ways of pleasantness and all its paths are peace. Bring us back, Lord, to You and we shall come. Renew our days of old. Amen. Amen. So, that was your peek into our congregation s Torah celebration. Why not come to a Messianic synagogue and participate? I give you my personal invitation to come to ours in Rochester, NY! Visit our website at shemayisrael.org. * * * Now to continue our soul searching that we started in the last chapter, we are going to look at some more of the ways that God s thinking is so far beyond our ways of thinking and the world s ways of thinking that His ways actually seem totally opposite, or up side down from ours. We re going to look at a few more passages in the Scriptures today where it speaks about these upside down ways of thinking. And, again, I d like you to receive them as a challenge, not to just say, This is interesting or What does this mean? Instead, I d like you to ask yourself, Am I thinking upside down like that, or Am I still thinking world side up? or Is my thinking being transformed into the way God thinks? Now, again if you feel a little apprehensive about that, you might be thinking, How can I change my way of thinking? I want you to know that the grace of God is very much in that process because it is very much His desire to change all of us. And I think of the time when God was dealing with Paul about his flesh and his pride. And when Paul complains about this God says, My grace is sufficient for you. My power is brought to perfection in your weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV and CJB). So, if there s a way in which you re convicted and you say, Well, I m not thinking like that I m not walking like that. Don t get discouraged. Don t get depressed about it. First believe that if God has revealed this to you, He s going to give you the way to change. It might not happen overnight, but He s going to get you to the way to be transformed.

16 CHAPTER 19 THE MESSAGE OF AKIDA (THE BINDING OF ISAAC) Genesis 22:1 After these things, God tested Avraham (Abraham). He said to him, Avraham! and he answered, Here I am. This is the beginning of the Parashah reading which is read in synagogues all over the world every year on Yom Teruah (Rosh Hashanah). The traditional connection between this passage and this holiday is the ram, as you ll see later. This is a very powerful story. I believe the Lord has a very simple, yet very profound message for each of us in this story. The Hebrew word that is translated tested, is not always translated as tested. In the King James Version it says, God tempted Abraham. But we know according to Apostle James that God cannot tempt anyone. The word is nih-sah and it means to test or prove or try. Let s see how Avraham (Abraham) is tested. 239

17 240 Chapter 19 The Message Of Akida 241 Avraham answered God, Heneni. In other words, I m here. I m ready. What do You have to say to me? I m ready to obey and serve. Genesis 22:2 He said, Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Yitz chak (Isaac); and go to the land of Moriyah (Moriah). There you are to offer him as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will point out to you. Now first of all, Yitz khak (Isaac) wasn t Avraham s (Abraham s) only son. If you ve read the book of Genesis, you know that he had another son, Yishma el (Ishmael). But it s interesting that because Yitz khak (Isaac) was the son of promise, God doesn t even consider Yishma el to be a son. He calls Yitz khak your only son because he s the one for the promises. And the promises that God made to be fulfilled through Yitz khak are in the just preceding chapter, Genesis 21. It s the promise of multiplication and blessing. Yitz khak was the seed through whom the blessing was supposed to come. He was to receive the blessing and pass it on down. So, this is a very strange thing that God is telling Avraham to do. In addition to that, we know from previous chapters that Yitz khak (Isaac) is Avraham s greatest love. Avraham had longed for a son for many, many years. He was almost a hundred years old by this time. Finally he had a son through Hagar, the handmaid of his wife, Sarah. But that wasn t the right son. Thirteen years later Avraham and Sara finally had the son that God had promised them. So if you can just imagine how this son was the fulfillment of so many years of prayer and such longing. And now God says, You are to sacrifice this son. I want to point out to you some foreshadowings here, or parallels of the account of the Messiah that we read especially in the latter part of the Gospels. The first is that the Gospels say that Yeshua is God s only son. The second is that God s greatest love was His only son. So here we have a parallel that s happening in the life of Avraham. God told Avraham to offer Yitz khak as a burnt offering. You know in our day and age if God were somehow to speak that to us, we would be sure it was NOT God because there are commandments in the Bible that say not to do that. But we need to understand that in those days, those commandments had not been given yet, and the people that were all around Avraham all the pagans people groups around him practiced human sacrifice regularly. They sacrificed their children. (See 2 Kings 16:3.) God s commandments against this were given much later. That s why Avraham didn t say, Oh, that can t be God. He heard God and he knew it was God. Avraham was to offer Yitz khak as a sacrifice. God offered His Son, Yeshua, as a sacrifice. That s the second foreshadowing. The next interesting thing here is the place where God tells him to make this sacrifice. It s at the mountain called Moriah. 2 Chronicles 3:1 Then Shlomo (Solomon) began to build the house of ADONAI in Yerushalayim on Mount Moriyah, where ADONAI had appeared to David his father. So, Mt. Moriah is where the Temple was built. So the third foreshadowing is that the place where God told Avraham to sacrifice Yitz khak is the exact same mountain where God s Son was sacrificed more than 2000 years later. Genesis 22:3 Avraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, together with Yitz chak his son. He cut the wood for the burnt offering, departed and went toward the place God had told him about. If you ve read the book of Genesis, you have to see that this is totally out of character for Avraham. Avraham had a history of bargaining; of arguing; of coming up with excuses; of doing things differently. He bargained with Lot over who would get the land. He bargained with his allies. When he defeated their enemies, he said, No, I don t want to take any payment from you. He bargained with Avimalek (Abimilech). The final bargaining which is the most famous was when he did intercessory bargaining with God about Sodom. Will you not save the city if there are forty righteous men? How about 30? How about 20? How about 10? So, for Avraham to hear this new instruction from God that was so radical and to not even comment to just get up the next morning and cut the wood and saddle the donkey was really amazingly out of character. There s no mention of any objection from him. So, I believe this was much more than, Oh, I heard the voice of God in my head. You know, I sense that God was telling me this. I believe this was a very strong manifestation of God to Avraham. There was no doubt that this was God. There was no question that this was what God was telling him to do. It was a clear command directly from the Lord because he immediately got up and went to do what he was called to do. Genesis 22: 4-5 On the third day, Avraham raised his eyes and saw the place in the distance. 5 Avraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go there, worship and return to you. Now, here we seem to get back to the Avraham who s a little shifty. Remember when he lied to the king of Egypt about who his wife was? So, what is this all about? We will come back to you? Yitz khak is supposed to be a burnt offering. Burnt offerings don t come back. So,

18 242 Chapter 19 The Message Of Akida 243 what is this all about? Well, in the Book of Hebrews there is actually a comment on this that explains it in a very amazing way. Hebrews 11:17-19 By trusting, Avraham, when he was put to the test, offered up Yitz chak as a sacrifice. Yes, he offered up his only son, he who had received the promises, 18 to whom it had been said, What is called your seed will be in Yitz chak. 19 For he had concluded that God could even raise people from the dead! And, figuratively speaking, he did so receive him. So, the author of Hebrews has pondered this Genesis passage and by revelation he has come to the conclusion that Avraham was really trusting that God would raise Yitz khak from the dead. I believe it was because he had this contradiction going on. God promised to multiply my descendants through Yitz khak. So, if I sacrifice Yitz khak, he s got to come back to life because God has to keep His promises. But even so, as you can imagine, this still must have been very hard for him. So, the fifth foreshadow of the Messiah is that Yitz khak s father knew that when he died he would rise from the dead. And we see that in the sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua. Genesis 22:6 Avraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on Yitz chak his son. Then he took in his hand the fire and the knife, and they both went on together. Now here s a little bit of information that we can glean from this. We know that Avraham was well over 100 years old at this time. From this verse we can understand that Yitz khak was old enough to carry the wood up the mountain. So he had to be at least a teenager to be able to do that. So, here s the sixth foreshadow. I don t know if you ve ever seen this before. I actually never saw it before. The son had to carry the wood of his sacrifice. Yeshua carried the wood of his sacrifice the cross. Isn t that amazing?! Genesis 22:7 Yitz chak spoke to Avraham his father: My father? He answered, Here I am, my son. He said, I see the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? So, we have a little bit of a problem here. Yitz khak s getting suspicious. What s going on here? And Avraham has to deal with it. Genesis 22:8 Avraham replied, God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son ; and they both went on together. Evidently this satisfied Yitz khak. But this is an interesting statement because it sounds like it might be a half truth. How did Avraham know that God was going to provide a lamb? But it s really a statement of faith because the way this is worded it actually is Elohim yireh Lo ha-say. Literally in Hebrew it is God will see for Himself for the lamb or God will provide for Himself the lamb or God will provide Himself a lamb. It s interesting that every English translation has this strange construct. It isn t ever in any translation simply God will provide the lamb. It s always God will provide Himself the lamb or God will provide the lamb Himself. There are two ways you can understand this. One way is that God Himself will provide a lamb. The other way is, God will provide the lamb. It will be Himself. Now we see the seventh foreshadow of Messiah s sacrifice because when He sacrificed Himself or allowed Himself to be sacrificed, the way we understand the New Covenant is that the Messiah was God Himself come as a man. So, God Himself was sacrificing Himself fulfilling this amazingly. Actually I saw two foreshadows in this. God provided the Lamb He provided Messiah Yeshua but in true sense it was God Himself. Also, we need to just think about this about how strange this statement is. The whole point of sacrifice is that men make it to God. Right? All the sacrifices in the Bible are men making them to God. But here somehow God is going to make the sacrifice. Why is that? Well, in Hebrews it tells us that the sacrifices that were in the Tanakh in the Old Covenant the blood of bulls and goats made atonement for people. We have to understand that the word atonement in Hebrew is kippur. The word kippa comes from the same root meaning covering. So the animal sacrifices that were made covered the people s sins. The author of Hebrews refers to this. Hebrews 10: 4 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Do you see that? They covered sins but they didn t take them away. Hebrews 10:5 This is why, on coming into the world, he says, It has not been your will to have an animal sacrifice and a meal offering; rather, you have prepared for me a body. This has always been interpreted as the Messiah talking. This is a quote from the Psalms. The Messiah is saying, You have prepared for Me a body, not an animal, not a meal (grain) sacrifice, but a body so that sins could actually be taken away not just covered over. It took a greater sacrifice to take away sins. Genesis 22:9 They came to the place God had told him about; and Avraham built the altar there, set the wood in order, bound Yitz chak his son and laid him on the altar, on the wood.